Subject suspicious actions lead to arrest for burglary

AMiami-Dade Police Kendall District officer’s dogged tracking of suspicious actions led to solving a $10,000 burglary during July.

For his “astute observation powers and investigative “savvy,” Det. Frank Reynolds was presented the Kendall District’s award as Officer of the Month for August.

On July 16, Det. Reynolds on cruiser surveillance spotted a suspect tossing an item into a dumpster adjacent to a business at 9250 SW 40 St. before getting into his Nissan Altima and driving away.

That action led Det. Reynolds to tail the departing suspect until stopping at a home in the 9300 block of SW 41st Street, park in the driveway and repeatedly knock on the front door without response.

Det. Reynolds then watched the subject “walk back to his car, quickly return and begin tampering with a front window” before exhibiting nervousness and returning to his car to drive away. That was all Det. Reynolds needed to stop the subject who, according to the detective’s report, spontaneously stated, “I’m on probation for burglary. I haven’t stopped anywhere or did nothing wrong.”

However, due to subsequent conflicting statements, Det. Reynolds arrested the subject for loitering and prowling and then searched his car to discover burglary tools, gloves, jewelry and an undisclosed number of coins.

At that point, Det. Michael Zambrana took over the investigation while Det. Reynolds drove back to the SW 41st Street home, discovering window pry marks, before retracing his route back to the dumpster where he first became suspicious of the suspect’s actions.

There he found a red purse containing an address on SW 40th Street where a burglary had been reported earlier.

That owner later identified her purse as the one found in the dumpster, as well as $10,000 in stolen property. The subject wound up with a new arrest sheet showing a total of six charges, including grand theft, for his activities, with all items taken returned to the victimized resident at SW 40th Street.

CAC chair Barry White called Det. Reynolds “a credit to the Miami-Dade Police Department and the community you serve” in awarding his citation at the Kendall District CAC meeting on Sept. 26.